


here labor is in vain

by la_victorienne



Category: Torchwood
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-12
Updated: 2008-07-12
Packaged: 2018-10-16 00:40:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10560466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/la_victorienne/pseuds/la_victorienne
Summary: ianto is drinking.  steadily.





	

_Summer Rain_  
Ingredients:  
2 Shots De Kuyper Cranberry Liqueur  
Top up Apple Juice

Method:  
Half fill a highball glass with cubed ice. Pour in the De Kuyper Cranberry Liqueur. Top up with apple juice. Add a squeeze of lime juice. Muddle the ingredients together in the glass. Garnish with a slice of lime.

 

  
After six or seven of these, they’re not too bad, actually.

Ianto is aware he is well on his way to full-blown intoxication, and possibly alcohol poisoning, but he starts in on another of the very pink, very pretty drinks, and grins a little stupidly at the shiny lip of the bar – or is that the lip of the bartender? It doesn’t really matter; Jack would approve either way, and of course that’s what Ianto cares about. Pleasing Jack. The bastard.

He takes another drink and a silky-smooth voice sounds next to him, asking the barkeep for another of the same. Ianto’s fuddled brain can’t process at his usual rapid rate, but there is no mistaking that sound and he sighs into his glass before shaking his head.

“Going a bit fast there, Jones.”

“Christ – just – is there no way you can leave me alone? For just a few moments?” Jack smiles.

“No, not really. I happen to enjoy your company, just a little.”

“I’m flattered.”

“And pissed. In the, er, English sense, not the American. I’m trying to be a conscientious citizen.”

“If I’m pissed it’s your fault.”

“I fail to follow your logic.”

Ianto says nothing and empties the last of his drink down his throat, aware of how very strange this must seem to Jack, to see the straight-laced office boy so completely undone, though alone and still wearing most of his clothing.

“I’m tired, Jack. Everything I do is so necessary, so bloody important. But that’s not why I do it, and I’d think you’d know that by now.” Jack is quiet, aware that inebriation is the only way Ianto will open up to him anyway, despite their…arrangement, and his unhealthy curiosity doesn’t mind taking advantage of that fact if it will make him understand the young man better. “I do it for you, you great ruddy moron, and I usually hate that about myself. So here I am, in a bar, drinking really quite ridiculous summer drinks that are supposed to come on the beach with an umbrella, and wondering why I didn’t pick a job that would let me have a vacation and drink them there.” He turns the glass in its ring of condensation and keeps his eyes down. “And then I know. Why I stayed. After Lisa, after the Beacons. I stayed for you, because of you, to stay close to you.”

Jack puts a hand on his shoulder, warm and heavy, and takes the drink out of his hand.

“Come on,” he says, his voice gentle and quiet, with none of its usual “trust me” treble.

“I won’t,” Ianto says. “I want to be alone. For a little while. I just need a little while.”

There have been moments in every friendship Jack has ever had with the express option to walk away or stay, and every time he has walked away knowing that nothing will be the same again. But something about this straight-laced office boy, something about his indulgent smile and his dedication, something about the life he leads in spite of himself – Jack stays for the first time. There in the bar, drinking very pink and very pretty drinks out of tall glasses, until Ianto consents to let Jack take him home and tuck him into bed. He stays, for all the reasons Ianto does.  



End file.
